Scotland's Local Environmental Quality Seminar will take place 29 October 2025.

This is an all-day, in person event held in Glasgow.

Join us at the 2025 Local Environmental Quality seminar for a full day of presentations, workshops and networking framed around the issues facing Scotland’s environment.

Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from Keep Scotland Beautiful and where we are focusing our attention, as well as insights from the 2025 How clean are our streets? report. We’ll also share our work on developing AI software to detect litter and our manifesto.

External presentations will be delivered by Scott Edgar from Diffley Partnership on the key polling data from this year’s Scottish Litter Survey and Glasgow City Council’s Director of Service Delivery, Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability Jenny O’Hagan, who will share the council’s development and delivery of a city-wide approach to improve local environmental quality.

There will be 1 hour workshops held throughout the day, with delegates able to choose two out of four to attend.

This event is a brilliant opportunity to find out more about a collective opportunity to improve local environmental quality, what has already been achieved, what is planned in the coming year and future opportunities.

Seminar agenda

Workshops

Session one

Developing innovative approaches to informing actions

Brian Rae, Operations Manager, Keep Scotland Beautiful

The capabilities of Information technology is moving at pace.  Whether it be the use of geographical information systems, interactive dashboards or artificial intelligence, how can we make best use of technology to drive effective actions?

In this workshop, you will hear an overview of the approaches to managing litter data that are currently being developed as part of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy year 3 action plan to replace the Litter Monitoring System and how these are being tailored to local information needs. 

This workshop is an opportunity for you to tell us what data information you need to drive action forward locally in your areas and how we can support you.

Session two

Changing behaviours through targeted campaigns

Emma Glencross, Senior Officer, Campaigns and Interventions, Keep Scotland Beautiful

The specific litter problem, including the behaviours, demographics and sources, varies across the country.

In this workshop we will run through how we’ve approached local litter issues using data to design bespoke campaigns targeting key behaviours, sources and audiences.

Hear about some of the key campaigns we have run, the toolkits and resources you can use, and help us consider areas we are missing and need to develop to ensure we have a suite of consistent campaigns for partners to utilise across Scotland.

Your training requirements - What Keep Scotland Beautiful can do for you

Jamie Ormiston, Training and Accreditation Coordinator and Alastair Alford, Senior Officer, Local Environmental Quality, Keep Scotland Beautiful

We have an extensive portfolio of training services designed to upskill staff and stakeholders to improve your environmental standards. In this workshop we’ll take you on a whistlestop tour of some of these training options and work with you to identify how we can fill any gaps in your team’s knowledge. Come along to meet our training team and find out how we can support you, from off the shelf accredited training to bespoke workshops.

Barry Fisher (Chair)

Chief Executive, Keep Scotland Beautiful

Barry has extensive experience in the youth sector. He joined us from the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, where latterly he held the role of Scotland Director. Prior to this Barry worked with the Ocean Youth Trust Scotland. The environment has always played a massive part in all his past employment roles as he sought to engage young people with activities dependent on clean, healthy environments.

He has a BA Honours in management and tourism from the University of Glasgow/SRUC.

Barry currently lives in Perthshire and is a Trustee of Remembering Srebrenica Scotland and St Fillan's Development Trust.

Scott Edgar

Senior Research Manager, Diffley Partnership

Scott joined the Diffley Partnership in 2022 following previous roles in social research at the Electoral Commission and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.  Since joining the business he has managed a wide range of research projects including two of Diffley Partnership’s regular quarterly surveys in Understanding Scotland and Understanding Business.

He has significant expertise in statistical data analysis, research design, management of research projects and communication and has worked on several high profile and high impact projects over the course of his career.  He holds a MSc in Political Research from the University of Strathclyde.

Scott has worked with Keep Scotland Beautiful for a number of years including on the Scottish Litter Survey and commissions focusing on marine litter, roadside litter and sport and climate action.

Brian Rae

Operations Manager, Environment and Place Services, Keep Scotland Beautiful

Brian joined us in 2006. He has a committed approach to working in the environmental sector and has, in the past, managed a variety of data streams for us – including LEAMS, development and rollout of the Litter Monitoring System (LMS), coastal environmental quality data, trunk road service station quality audit data, bespoke Nudge behaviour change projects and more recently working with duty bodies/statutory undertakers in quantifying the quality of their local environments to support strategic plans for improvement.

With an academic degree in Environmental Science, majoring in Applied GIS, Brian has a key role of overseeing the development of spatial data capture/querying/reporting systems for us, with efficiency and ease of use in mind, while allowing for complex hypothesis testing. He has also been involved in developing a standardised methodology for monitoring litter across Europe with the Clean Europe Network and currently leads on delivering Actions 16 and 17 of the year 2 action plan in line with the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy 2023.

More recently, Brian has stepped up into the Operations Manager role within the Environment and Place Services Team, with responsibility to ensure that our services are current and delivered with a focus on quality outcomes for stakeholders/clients.

Jenny O'Hagan

Director of Service Delivery, Neighbourhoods, Regenerations and Sustainability, Glasgow City Council

Jenny O’Hagan is a Chartered Accountant, who has worked within Local Government at a senior level for over 30 years, after training in the private sector. She has carried out various roles, across a range of council departments since joining Glasgow City Council after reorganisation in 1996, building lots of networks and friendships along the way both within and out-with the Council. Her roles have largely been within the Finance and the Transformation/business change field but she moved across to become the Divisional Director – Operations within the Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability department in 2022, responsible for leading approximately 2000 staff across frontline, professional and management roles across Refuse and Waste, Roads, Transport, Public Health, Parks, Events and Community Safety- which was quite a change and one she relished before taking up her current role of Director of Service Delivery for the department in October 2024 - a role spanning frontline operations to Planning, Housing and Regeneration for the City.

Jenny is an ambassador for health and wellbeing within the workplace as part of a healthy worklife balance, being sensitive to the impact the challenging work environment has on staff. She keeps fit with a particular focus on open water swimming as her release to keep her mind and body fit for the resilience that is required for her job.

Heather McLaughlin

Campaigns and Social Innovation Manager, Keep Scotland Beautiful

Heather joined Keep Scotland Beautiful in July 2017 as a Community Projects Officer and is now our Campaigns and Social Innovation Manager. Before joining us she worked at Aberdeen City Council as a Recycling Advisor after working with Nicki Soutar Associates on a project with the city council.

Through her time with us, she has worked on a range of our community projects and campaigns including our work on single-use vapes, Spring Clean, and marine litter. In her current role she looks after our portfolio of campaigns including Upstream Battle, Cup Movement, Clean Up Scotland and targeted projects tackling litter and waste.

Heather has a BSc (Hons) in Biology from the University of St Andrews.

Bipin Babu

AI Engineer, Keep Scotland Beautiful | University of Stirling | Innovate UK

Bipin is an AI Engineer with Keep Scotland Beautiful, working in partnership with the University of Stirling and Innovate UK to develop a real-time street litter detection system that supports cleaner, more sustainable communities across Scotland. His expertise includes computer vision, machine learning, software engineering and problem-solving, with a focus on applying innovative AI solutions to tackle litter pollution and enhance local environmental quality.

Paul Wallace

Head of Operations, Keep Scotland Beautiful

Paul joined us in 2013. He has responsibility for managing our behaviour change campaigns, including Roadside Litter, Upstream Battle, Cup Movement and for our Environmental Services activity.

Prior to this he spent 15 years in local government working in senior management positions. He has extensive experience in strategic planning, policy development, research, partnership working, community planning and SOAs, performance management and corporate communications.

Paul is a graduate of Glasgow Caledonian University with a BA (Hons) in Public Administration and Management.

GDPR Statement

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